Pine floorboards is the original flooring that was used in properties for centuries up to the 1950s in the United Kingdom. Later on building trends went into more solid and sustanable materials such as concrete. When fresh pine floorboards were laid, initially they had a bright yellow colour and which later, during a period of 20 years the boards darkend into light-brown, oak colour. Taking advantage of this hardwood looking and rustic appearance, nowadays will be on of the most affordable ways to restore your original floorboards and complete your interior ideas.
Pine floorboards have various benefits such as authentic appearance, durability and budget-friendly restoration cost. If you love the look of pine flooring but are affraid to take care or replace, restoration can be a perfect option for you. As this choice can help you save money and time.
Floorboards Repairs
During the restoration you may need to do some floor repairs - raplace few damaged boards gap fill you floors for better finish and increase insulation.
To complete the repairs, you may need to supply reclaimed floorboards matching the size of your own boards. Althout sizes vary depending on properties and period they were built, quite popular size will be 145 mm.
During the process of aging, the pine timber has seasoned and shrinked in size due to loss of volume. This would cause gaps to appear, which can be gap filled during the sanding process. For gap filling the floors a clear resin such as "Lecol 7500 Fast-Drying Filler" will need to be supplied and mixed with the finer dust collected during the inital sanding.
Following the restoration process will provide the best and satisfactory results.
The Process of Floorboards Restoration
The following 8 steps will lead to the process of floorboards restoration:
- Step 1: While starting off for the restoration of the pine floorboards one should first start stripping down the old surface of timber along with coarse 24 grid abrasive.
- Step 2: Now, remove the coarse grid marks with the help of 40 grid abrasive.
- Step 3: Filling the gap: if there are larger gaps between the floorboards, one needs to fix it by mixing clear resin with the 40 grid saw dust that is collected through the sanding and apply as putty throughout the floors, now Sand the floors again with 40 grid.
- Step 4: Prepare the timber surface for sealing it with fine abrasive of 60 and that of 80 grids.
- Step 5: By using a rotary machine finish the floors with 80 grid or 100 grid buffing mesh.
- Step 6: Now apply two (2) coats of water-based lacquer. During the drying time of the lacquer, small fibers will raise on the surface due to shrinking polyurethane content.
- Step 7: Denibb the newly applied lacquered surface, as this will help remove the raised fibers occurred during the drying period and prepare the surface for application of final coat.
- Step 8: At the final step applies the coat and leave it to dry and get a perfect finish.
